On Mon, 23 Nov 2020 10:25:28 +0100 Flo <debian...@gmx.at> wrote: > On 11/23/20 7:05 AM, David Wright wrote: > > On Sun 22 Nov 2020 at 18:57:46 (+0100), Flo wrote: > >> On 2020-11-22 01:04, deloptes wrote: > >>> David Wright wrote: > >>> > >>>> I can't understand how anyone would want to have a live INBOX > >>>> file containing 2GB of emails. Apart from the risks, it just > >>>> seems so disorganised. > >>> > >>> I don't even try - there are all kinds of people out there - and > >>> everybody is free. And surprisingly the OP recompiles the > >>> package. In this case it is enough to just point out the nonsense > >>> of the subject "Problem with /var/mail file > 2GB with pop3". > >> > >> Let's assume an average message size of 20MB. Then 100 messages are > >> enough to make it INBOX file that big. This doesn't necessarily > >> mean that this is disorganized. > > > > Let's assume an average word length of 10 characters, completely > > excessive. That would give an email of 2 million words. That would > > give you about 4000 pages of single-spaced text. No one writes > > emails like that; not even Proust, were he alive. > > > > So these hefty emails are really files being transferred as > > attachments, aren't they? And having been transferred, one would > > usually archive the files, and move the emails out of the live > > INBOX into other mail files or directories. > > > > Perhaps not. What would be the advantage of leaving 100 such > > sizeable files in a live INBOX? > > > > To have them (files and context) available on a other devices as well > for a limited amount of time. Not only on the device where the files > are archived.
That's why we have IMAP, which doesn't use mbox. I have about 3GB emails live on my IMAP server, accessible to all my devices, that's about 20 years' worth. -- Joe
